New Entry Level 21.5-inch iMac • Hacker News Board

Re: New Entry Level 21.5-inch iMac

#21

Post by dsr_ » Wed, Jun 18, 2014, 1:49 PM UTC

This has a 1920x1080 display.

I fail to understand why someone would buy this over a Mac Mini and an external display: cheaper, more powerful, ability to change displays, only two more cables (power and data for the display).

Anyone care to enlighten me?

Re: New Entry Level 21.5-inch iMac

#22

Post by smackfu » Wed, Jun 18, 2014, 1:50 PM UTC

Glad they are moving a little downmarket. My friend wanted a new computer, and I figured an iMac would be perfect for her, because she just plans to sit it on a desk. But then I looked at the prices... who wants to spend $1299 on a desktop machine nowadays? And that's with no SSD, so a Macbook Air is probably going to be faster for a lot of stuff in day-to-day to use.

Re: New Entry Level 21.5-inch iMac

#23

Post by gambiting » Wed, Jun 18, 2014, 1:50 PM UTC

tmikaeld wrote: post #5

Too bad Hackintoshes are illegal, could get a lot more hardware for that kind of money.

Against the licence != illegal, depending on where you are in the world. In most EU countries, if you show the receipt of purchase for a stand alone copy of OSX, you can install it on anything you like legally,EULA prohibiting that would never stand up in any European court.

Re: New Entry Level 21.5-inch iMac

#24

Post by hackety » Wed, Jun 18, 2014, 1:51 PM UTC

dsr_ wrote: post #21

This has a 1920x1080 display. I fail to understand why someone would buy this over a Mac Mini and an external display: cheaper, more powerful, ability to change displays, only two more cables (power and data for the display). Anyone care to enlighten me?

1) it's thin and pretty

2) self-contained. Only a power cable is required. Makes a neat desk.

3) it's completely silent (but then again so is a mac mini)

4) the higher-end models have an actual graphics card (mac mini has very bad graphics)

Re: New Entry Level 21.5-inch iMac

#25

Post by morty16 » Wed, Jun 18, 2014, 1:51 PM UTC

dsr_ wrote: post #21

This has a 1920x1080 display. I fail to understand why someone would buy this over a Mac Mini and an external display: cheaper, more powerful, ability to change displays, only two more cables (power and data for the display). Anyone care to enlighten me?

This is for the education market, IMO.

Re: New Entry Level 21.5-inch iMac

#26

Post by gambiting » Wed, Jun 18, 2014, 1:52 PM UTC

dsr_ wrote: post #21

This has a 1920x1080 display. I fail to understand why someone would buy this over a Mac Mini and an external display: cheaper, more powerful, ability to change displays, only two more cables (power and data for the display). Anyone care to enlighten me?

Because some people like to have a single machine, like my mother who INSISTED on buying an iMac, because she absolutely loved the idea of having to plug only a single cable in, and not having the computer as a separate box, just a monitor on her desk. That's not a choice I would make,but she liked it,so why not?

Re: New Entry Level 21.5-inch iMac

#27

Post by teh_klev » Wed, Jun 18, 2014, 1:55 PM UTC

hackety wrote: post #24

dsr_ wrote: post #21

This has a 1920x1080 display. I fail to understand why someone would buy this over a Mac Mini and an external display: cheaper, more powerful, ability to change displays, only two more cables (power and data for the display). Anyone care to enlighten me?

1) it's thin and pretty 2) self-contained. Only a power cable is required. Makes a neat desk. 3) it's completely silent (but then again so is a mac mini) 4) the higher-end models have an actual graphics card (mac mini has very bad graphics)

The "x 1080" in the display dimensions make me sad. It's a shame this is becoming the norm on medium sized panels and not 1920x1200.

Re: New Entry Level 21.5-inch iMac

#28

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Jun 18, 2014, 1:56 PM UTC

scolson wrote: post #16

DCKing wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do all my development work (which involves a lot of heavy Scala stuff) on a 2012 MacBook Air, which is a wee bit slower than this one. The CPU really is not a problem. There's no SSD or 'Fusion Drive' in this one, which will make it bog down a lot. It's a shame that Apple won't go for a $999 model with a 64GB SSD or something. Should be enough for classrooms and anyone who wants a basic computer.

SSD and Fusion are BTO options just like on the rest of the iMac line. My bigger complaint is that the RAM is non-upgradable even as BTO. I really couldn't imagine if I had to bring my computer back down to 8GB RAM from 16.

[deleted]

Re: New Entry Level 21.5-inch iMac

#29

Post by DCKing » Wed, Jun 18, 2014, 1:56 PM UTC

scolson wrote: post #16

DCKing wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do all my development work (which involves a lot of heavy Scala stuff) on a 2012 MacBook Air, which is a wee bit slower than this one. The CPU really is not a problem. There's no SSD or 'Fusion Drive' in this one, which will make it bog down a lot. It's a shame that Apple won't go for a $999 model with a 64GB SSD or something. Should be enough for classrooms and anyone who wants a basic computer.

SSD and Fusion are BTO options just like on the rest of the iMac line. My bigger complaint is that the RAM is non-upgradable even as BTO. I really couldn't imagine if I had to bring my computer back down to 8GB RAM from 16.

Yeah, but the SSD and Fusion options add a whopping $250 to the price and give you much more space than buyers of this model are likely interested in.

Re: New Entry Level 21.5-inch iMac

#30

Post by chrisBob » Wed, Jun 18, 2014, 1:56 PM UTC

morty16 wrote: post #25

dsr_ wrote: post #21

This has a 1920x1080 display. I fail to understand why someone would buy this over a Mac Mini and an external display: cheaper, more powerful, ability to change displays, only two more cables (power and data for the display). Anyone care to enlighten me?

This is for the education market, IMO.

The used to offer a few low-end options to schools that were not available in the regular Apple store. This iMac is probably just opening that up to the general public.